In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, we, the inventors, typically hybridize a large number of nectarine, peach, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of nectarine tree, which has been denominated varietally as "Rose Diamond". The present variety was hybridized by us in 1983, and the resulting seedling was planted in a cultivated area of our experimental orchard at Bradford Farms near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). Specifically, the hybridized seedling was originated by using Early Diamond (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,438) as the selected seed parent and an unnamed genetically dwarf peach seedling as the selected pollen parent. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of nectarine tree, we asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects.
The present variety is similar to its selected seed parent, Early Diamond (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,438), by producing fruit that is almost fully red in skin color, freestone in type, firm in texture, and excellent in flavor, but is distinguished therefrom by producing fruit that ripens two days later, that is larger in size, and that is less prone to split-pitting.